Q: Gold plunged immediately after the [Oct. 31] BoJ announcement [that it would expand its asset purchases], which came only days after the Federal Reserve announced the end of QE. Where do you see gold headed in 2015?

Faber: I think it will go up. But can it go down first? Yes. In general, I would say the game that central bankers are playing is very clear: They start out with QE1 in the U.S., and then that forced essentially other central banks to do the same, to also go QE. They’re kind of passing each other the ball. One stops, the other one starts. It’s basically a game designed to kill the purchasing power of paper money. I’m not sure they’re aware of it, but in my view, this is the beginning of the end of paper money in this century.

And asked about physical gold vs. mining shares, Faber says: In general, my advice to investors is to own physical gold and not gold mining shares. Because in a disaster scenario, you don’t know what financial assets will be worth, whereas physical gold is in your possession.”…Read more>>>

It’s hard to extoll the virtues of silver in the face of a price decline. We anticipate gains for our clients and are disappointed in the recent results. A lot of people rely on our advice and we don’t want to let them down. We all do better when our clients experience gains.

That said, are we ever going to get to the promised land? Right now the byword is patience. A clear understanding of what’s causing the recent decline will be helpful in plotting the future. As you know, we rely on silver analyst Theodore Butler to chart our course and fashion our advice. I happen to know that all his personal investments are in silver so he is definitely eating his own cooking. Because of his all-out bullishness on silver we have to stress that he operates with a care and cautiousness befitting of a mature and shrewd analyst. He understands the futures market like few others. Despite his profound and pioneering analysis of silver, surprisingly few gold and silver editors have embraced his breakthrough opinions. Either because of ego or stubbornness other precious metals analysts are invariably barking up the wrong tree. Mr. Butler has for years been the sole purveyor of the truth about silver….Read More »

There is a flip side to everything and mainly as a result of the terrible beating it has taken over the past few years, the upside cycle for silver appears to be at hand. Not only is silver at a stupid cheap price, it has everything necessary to rally sharply and soon. This week, for the first time in my memory, the CEO of a leading silver miner, First Majestic, called on fellow silver miners to withhold production to break the back of the manipulation. If there’s one clear signal that a commodity’s price is too cheap, it is just that.

To an investor, a cheap price means low risk and a good time to buy. But what about the reasons for silver to rally and rally soon? Start with the largest speculative short position in history. You’ve heard me complain about a massive silver short position by JPMorgan and other banks for years, but I’m talking about something different now. While there is still a very sizable commercial paper short position on the COMEX, that is separate from the new historical short position in COMEX silver held by technical funds or traders who rely on chart signals alone to buy or sell….Read More »

“All of the things I look at in silver seem to be aligned for a sharp move up,” says Ted Butler, in an interview with Investment Rarities’ President Jim Cook. Butler explains that “The big commercial traders, led by JPMorgan, have managed to get all the technical hedge funds to plow into the short side of COMEX silver. The technical funds must buy back their thousands of short silver contracts since they can’t possibly deliver real silver.”

And in a more extended conversation, with Peak Prosperity‘s Chris Martenson, Butler reiterates that the technical funds “have no ability whatsoever to deliver physical metal and at the same time they’re shorting like crazy into a physical environment where there’s nothing but indications that the market on a wholesale, physical basis is very tight. And that’s a combination that you can just blow sky high in price.”

David Stockman’s Contra Corner advances the argument that there is a “Plunge Protection Team,” and “It’s called the FOMC.” This as Bloomberg reports that Citigroup analysts “have put a price on how much liquidity central banks need to provide each quarter to stop markets from sliding. By estimating that zero stimulus would be consistent with a 10 percent quarterly drop in equities, they calculate it takes around $200 billion from central banks each quarter to keep markets from selling off.”

Ted Butler has also raised the issue of the “Plunge Protection Team” meddling in the metals, alleging that it gave JPMorgan the greenlight to manipulate the silver market.

Gold and silver futures gained 0.3% each on Tuesday, while spot prices fell a similar percentage, reports Reuters, noting that global growth anxieties “sent U.S. 30-year bond yields below 3 percent for the first time since May 2013, while benchmark 10-year yields fell to a 16-month low of 2.18 percent. ‘U.S. Treasury yields at these levels are not pointing to a rosy economy,'” according to a COMEX gold options trader, who predicted that “Gold and silver should have more upside after they have spent a long time in the bear market.”

In making the case for a “coming silver bubble,” Ted Butler explains that “an asset bubble develops when an undervalued asset which has a compelling investment story and there exists an overall financial environment of sufficient buying power, catches the collective interest of the crowd. For example, by the mid-2000’s and after years of steady appreciation, residential real estate developed into an asset bubble amid the self-fulfilling cycle of continued gains and the availability of easy credit.

Spot gold and silver dropped more than 2% on Monday, with one stated reason being an easing of problems in Portugal’s banking sector, which may still be far from solved. But arguably having little to do with Portugal, there was “massive selling in the futures market. Reportedly, 2300 futures contracts, with a notional value of $1.4 billion, were sold at the New York open,” according to USA Gold: “We’ve seen such raids in the paper market in the past. Throwing this kind of volume at the market all at once is reflective of someone not interested in getting the best price, but rather someone looking to generate shock and awe.” But while gold was being shocked and awed to its worst day in 2014, U.S. Mint bullion coin sales jumped, and GLD, the major gold ETF, was said to have seen its largest inflow since August 2011.

Spot gold and silver saw the slightest of gains on Tuesday while futures were slightly offin what Gold Forecaster‘s Julian Phillips brands a “strange” market, where gold demand is “steady and solid in a relatively thin market, but not swayed by speculators,” who, along with and dealers, “are trying to move gold around with the euro, which keeps going stronger as the dollar weakens.” But, he added that gold “keeps drifting higher as U.S. investors are now net buyers of the SPDR gold ETF in the last three weeks.”

As for the prospect of gold drifting even higher, CNBC, under the headline “These 3 charts tell you to buy gold,” highlights a note from Sterne Agee. The author contends that the investment advisory “remain new buyers and would be new buyers right here, in anticipation of the current ‘bearish-to-bullish’ reversal continuing and gaining urgency as new participants are drawn in.” It goes on to predict that gold will rise to $1,500/oz, but with no timeline, before running into resistance….Read More >>>

Reuters attributes gold’s gains to tensions over Ukraine and Iraq, and going forward, geopolitical tensions are also seen as the “wild card” for gold and silver, according to one analyst quoted by MarketWatch. He adds North Korea as a potential third hot spot, and says that “Any flare up in these areas could quickly lead to another round of ‘safe haven’ buying in the precious metals.”